Youth reaches Nabanna to lodge extortion complaint

A youth from Parui, Birbhum came to the state secretariat with allegations against Upapradhan of his gram panchayat of demanding extortion from him. Police said that the youth, Mithun Garai, is a resident of Batikar village at Parui, Birbhum and he possesses a pond and a piece of land adjacent to the water body. But there had been some dispute over the ownership of the water body and the plot which was once a vested land. He had also bought a tractor recently.

Garai on Wednesday alleged that the Upapradhan, Narayan Das demanded Rs 3 lakh from him to let him cultivate fish in the pond and Rs 50,000 to allow him to use the tractor to plough the land. Narayan Das, however, rubbished the claims. He alleged that there was some dispute when he had bought the tractor and Das had assured to help him rid all problems if he gives him the money. 

“Being a poor peasant it is not possible for me to give him such a huge amount of money after investing in the tractor,” he alleged, adding that as a result of which he was unable to undertake cleaning of the pond for pisciculture and prepare the land for farming.

He further alleged that the local police did not pay heed to his allegations. Thus, he was forced to come to Nabanna to lodge a complaint with the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO). He reached Nabanna at around 10 am on Wednesday and approached the policemen posted at the gates of the state secretariat and said that he wanted to lodge a complaint with the CMO. 

They took him to a senior police officer who was on duty at the security office on the ground floor of Nabanna. The officer gave him the direction on how to write the letter and what the methods are that he has to follow. It is learnt that the officer asked him to lodge a complaint with Parui police station as well. It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had given a clear message that any of the party’s worker demanding extortion would not be tolerated. Sources said that after knowing about the youth, Banerjee had contacted the Trinamool Congress president of Birbhum district to know the exact reason behind the allegations and came to know about the dispute over the plot.